Billings is out (his 2020 contract now becomes his 2021 contract), along with Drobeck and Forbes. Unlike the O-lineman, who would likely play only due to injury, the DL is way more rotational. A bummer.
Some Free Agent DT’s #Browns could target:
Snacks Harrison
Mike Daniels
Marcell Dareus
Timmy Jernigan
Corey Liuget
Domata Peko
Xavier Williams
If we get Billings back (does this just punt his deal to next year?), make it a veteran who can be on limited snaps... so basically one of those (!).
That why Snacks keeps coming up
Snacks?
https://dawgpounddaily.com/2020/08/04/cleveland-browns-replace-andrew-billings/
Snacks Harrison
Timmy Jernigan could be an option due to his time in Philly while Berry was there. It was a short time on the back end, but Jernigan was a respected member of their Superbowl winning squad. He's not an ideal fit for our front, but fit doesn't bother me as much with depth who ideally will be on a limited snap count. Fresh legs should help with that issue, and we're ultimately talking about a recent Superbowl champion with a lights out motor, a lot of experience and probably a really negative attitude towards Baltimore, who unceremoniously traded him away.
Plenty of options, however, so I imagine it will be hard to go wrong. I respect anyone's decision to opt out, but it is an interesting decision from Billings who could have found himself on the outs just as easily as the names we're currently discussing.
IDL ...
• Richardson
• Ogunjobi
• Elliott
• Ekuale
... @ the moment, right? Didn’t realize how young Ekuale is.
And they clearly dig Ekuale, he's been on the 53. I'm pretty sure we'll bring in one of those veterans though. It's the ideal assignment, be great for 20 snaps a game max.
A little over 8 hours to go, until we know the starting point of our roster.
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Matt Maiocco@MaioccoNBCS
The deadline to opt-out of the NFL season is 1 p.m. (PT). Entering today, 60 players have opted out around the league. Teams with more than two opt-outs are:
Patriots-8
Browns-4
Colts-3
Cowboys-3
Giants-3
Lions-3
Raiders-3
Scott Petrak ct @ScottPetrak
Deadline to opt out has passed. #Browns had five players opt out:
DT Andrew Billings
G Drew Forbes
G Colby Gossett
G Malcolm Pridgeon
T Drake Dorbeck
Welp, the good new is, I doubt we'll be saying at one point "if we only had Gossett, Pridgeon, or Dorbeck, we'd have won the game".
(let's get Alex Bars if he's let go, which is the rumor)
Billings and Forbes are the only guys I could see making the roster and potentially earning playing time. A little odd on the part of Forbes as I feel he would be a contender to start ahead of Teller or potentially earn the second string spot. It is unlikely Forbes would beat out Teller, but he certainly could have been a depth option - but, as always, I don't know his motivations for opting out and respect anyone's decision as a result. Can't blame someone for putting their family or their long-term health first.
But, either way, we didn't lose a starter and we've not nearly been hit as hard as some teams have from opt-outs. Even Billings would have likely only earned a handful of snaps.
I'm comfortable with the list. It shouldn't have much of an impact on our season.
Agree. We lost two players who would've been on the roster, both interior linemen, but only Bilings had a legit chance to start, or play enough snaps to be considered rotational. Odds are really strong that Forbes barely played in the 2020 regular season.
Billings lost is pretty real, though. He was an underrated ad, a legit dude. I expect we'll add a guy on each side of the ball but we won't get anybody as good as Billings.